To receive information on the current consultation and proposed options for the future provision of services and activities for young people in Wiltshire.
Cllr Laura Mayes, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services
Minutes:
Councillor Laura Mayes, Cabinet member for Children’s Services, delivered a presentation on the current consultation options for the future provision of services and activities for young people in Wiltshire.
Why the need for a review
A report was submitted to Cabinet on 21 January highlighting a number of issues. As it had been 10 years since the establishment of the current service it was now necessary to respond to the changing needs of young people.
Support needed to be targeted at those that need it most, currently the minority of young people access council provision, whilst many others access voluntary, community or commercial outlets.
Campuses would provide new opportunities across the county; the first campus opens in Corsham in June 2014.
As part of the budget setting on 25 February, it was recognised that some funding currently being spent on Integrated Youth Services would need to be saved. There would be no changes to the Youth Offending Service, Motivate or NEATS.
The Council has a statutory duty to secure access to leisure-time activities for young people. Currently, these services are provided through a range of open access youth development service across the county, with a mix of centre and street-based youth work.
The Department for Education updated the statutory guidance, with there being new focus for councils to enable services, rather than deliver direct provision, and to enhance the role for voluntary and community sector services.
In Mere there were 113 young people using the youth services, however over the year the attendance rate was over 2,000 this shows that those using the service in Mere were returning time and time again. Some youth centres in this area were open six days a week, including some Sundays.
Last year, the Area Board was allocated approximately £11,000 to spend on youth initiative projects; however, this was topped up by the Board to over £30,000.
Future provision will offer sustainable help, support and resource to target the young people who need it most. Opportunities would be made available for moreyoung people to access activities. The four options out for consultation are:
1. Retain the current in-house service but reduce the cost
4. Develop a community led approach
It is recognised that each community area has its own needs, and existing resources vary. Working with people locally will help to assess the needs for the South West Wiltshire community area.
Young people have communicated that that they wish to be more involved in the choices of services available to them. It had also been raised that transport was a fundamental issue in accessing services.
South West Wiltshire Youth Advisory Group (SWWYAG)
A group of young people presented information which had been collated during discussions at the SWWYAG meetings. They had formed a proposal for a fifth option for consideration.
SWWYAG - Option 5
Our idea is to mix community led and in-house models. We would like Wiltshire Council to commit to paying running costs of Youth centres for a few nights a week for a fixed amount of time, e.g. five years. These running costs would consist of transport and basic utilities, e.g. lights, heating, water. This would not include cleaning, ground keeping or window cleaning, as these jobs could be given to young people.
The council should also hire a co-ordinator for each area, as without one, there is no specific face of youth work. As well as paying for a few hours of assistant youth work time.
The youth workers could then help to train volunteers, along with training sessions provided by the council directly. This would ensure that the volunteers were of the highest quality and fully understand their role. The community involvement would be through running fund raisers in the local area and encouraging social enterprising for young people.
A way in which we could access the money to fund this model is by moving from the expensive and underused Sparksite to more widely use social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, and/or encouraging each youth project to start a charitable group, as there are funding opportunities available to charities which are not accessible to local authorities. We could also ask the parish councils to fund sessions as well.
As young people in rural areas, this option is the only plausible one. The community led model alone can’t work because there is no guarantee of the quality of the volunteers. The business mutual won’t work because it isn’t sustainable and would involve members of staff to agree to it, which they may not do. The main problem with the in-house model is that the proposed hub towns are hard to access for rural communities, and outsourcing is a risk as companies could care more about making money than the service they deliver to young people.
We feel we have good support from youth workers here as well as the local community and our proposed model would be an opportunity to develop and build on this, whilst also reducing Wiltshire Councils costs and keeping the services we value and need.
Questions and comments were then received, these included:
· How will you measure if the new service is better value for money? Answer: We are currently engaging with lots of young people but there are still many who we are not reaching. I am looking to see an increase in that.
· When you talk about community, what scale are you talking about? Answer: We are talking about Area Board level at this stage, but we are also looking at the role of the CAM and a Youth Coordinator role.
· In Zeals we have a self funding youth club, but we still need a qualified youth worker to support us. Answer: Yes, we have seen that when asked, young people gave a clear message that it was the youth worker and not the building which they valued the most.
· Young people who attend the Bridging Project have started to come to other youth activity sessions because they have loved the time they spend with the other young people they meet there.
· The Leisure Credit scheme has allowed the young people to be involved in carrying out work in the community in exchange for credits to use against activities.
· Wilton used to have a youth club in the Wilton Middle School, when the school closed, we were without a youth club for seven years. We now have a youth club again, but we are concerned that we could lose it without the support of the youth worker.
· The good youth work in the area comes down to the professional staff we have supporting us in Mere, Wilton and Tisbury. Will there still be availability for progression within the new structure of youth workers? Answer: Local Government has changed; we cannot pretend that there will be a long line of command for staff to move up through. Those that do stay on and get the new roles will have quite an interesting job.
· Transport is a huge issue in our rural community areas, the youth workers spend a great deal of their time transporting the young people to the activities. Answer: The mini buses would continue for any new model chosen.
· Many of our young people go to school in Dorset, if we encounter issues within the youth centres, we would be divorced from Wiltshire Council Services. Answer: The Youth worker would be able to liaise cross border with Dorset schools.
· Buildings cost money, will this come out of the budget and where will the young people meet if there are no buildings? Answer: Whatever changes are made to the youth service, they have to be sustainable, and this would include the staff and the way they operate. In term of which buildings would be used, this would depend on the area, as each is different.
· It has been mentioned that the mini buses would only be run as long as they are serviceable, what does that mean? Answer: Cllr Mayes agreed to look into the matter and relay an answer via the CAM.
Action: Cllr Mayes to relay information on the future of the mini buses, to the CAM.
· Volunteering is not always a possible solution. In Fovant for several years there was no one willing to volunteer for the vacant youth worker post, so the Area Board gave a grant to fund a part time youth worker. This youth club has now grown.
· The young people in attendance were asked whether they had ever used the Spark website, comments from them reflected what had been received in other community areas, that the site was not used by them and they did not rate the site. Answer: As the site was underused and appeared not to be a hit with the young people, it would be considered as a possible saving. Closing the site would see a saving of £65,000.
· Would the young people’s suggestion for an option 5 be seriously considered? Answer: Yes the suggestion would be taken back and judged against the criteria.
· It was felt that it would have been useful if the young people had received a copy of the criteria before they had written their proposal, as they could have taken it into account. Answer: The criteria could be sent to the youth worker for use; however it does not appear that the option 5 submitted by the SWWYAG fails any of the criteria.
· John Berkley Matthews; of Tisbury parish council gave information on the formation of an Army Cadet course in Tisbury. Two local volunteers had been recruited and were undergoing training to become Army Cadet volunteers. The group was now looking for premises to use and to safely store kit. One building which had come to light was the small bungalow at the back of the police building in Tisbury. Answer: Cllr Deane noted that sharing the police building might be a possibility, however in the longer term the Campus would welcome the Army Cadets.
· Would the youth presentations from the council and the SWWYAG be uploaded to the Our Community websites for all to see? Answer: Yes, the CAM would upload the information.
Action: CAM to upload the information from the slides and presentations to the website.
Note: Presentations have now been circulated to all Parish Councils and can be made available on request to the CAM, as it was not possible to upload them to the community blogsite.